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… In 1405, Hongwu's son, the Yongle Emperor, ordered the cutting of a giant stele in this quarry, for use in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum of his deceased father. In accordance with the usual design of a Chinese memorial stele, three separate pieces were being cut: the rectangular stele base (pedestal), the stele body, and the stele head (crown, to be decorated with a dragon design). After most of the stone-cutting work had been done, the architects realized that moving stones that big from Yangshan to Ming Xiaoling, let alone installing them there in a proper way, would not be physically possible. As a result, the project was abandoned. In place of the stele, a much smaller tablet (still, the largest in the Nanjing area), known as the Shengong Shengde ("Divine Merits and Godly Virtues") Stele was installed in Ming Xiaoling's "Square Pavilion" (Sifangcheng) in 1413.

The three unfinished stele components remain in Yangshan Quarry to this day, only partially separated from the living rock of the mountain. The present dimensions and the usual weight estimates of the steles are as follows:

According to experts, if the stele had been finished and put together, by installing the stele body vertically on the base, and topping with the stele head, then it would have stood 73 meters tall. For comparison, the Shengong Shengde Stele actually installed in Ming Xiaoling is 8.78 m tall.
(Wikipedia references deleted by Robert Jameson)

An overall view of the quarry site from a walking trail. The stele base, center left; the stele body, and the stele head in front of it, near the horizon, a bit right of center

Stele base

Stele body

Stele body

Stele body with head on left of image

Stele head

Stele head

Look to me like there has been geopolymer happening on the head!

Following is the stele that was actually erected:

Shengong Shengde stele

QuoteWikipedia quote:

Da Jin Men and Sifangcheng. One enters the site through the monumental Great Golden Gates (Da Jin Men), and is soon faced by a giant stone tortoise (bixi), which resides in the Sifangcheng ("Square city") pavilion. The tortoise supports a splendid carved stone stele, crowned by intertwining hornless dragons. The well-preserved stele is known as the "Shengong Shengde Stele", i.e., literally, "The Stele of Godly Merit and Saintly Virtue". The inscription of the stele, extolling the merits and virtues of the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was written by his fourth son, the Yongle Emperor. The tortoise is 5.15 m long, 2.54 m wide and 2.8 m tall, the stele stands 8.78 m tall (including the tortoise) and is one of the best-known examples of its genre.
(Wikipedia references deleted by Robert Jameson)

This is ridiculous. It is impossible to believe the people of that era, with only ancient tools, somehow had the ability to carve such huge monuments but did not realise the largest of the megaliths would be about five hundred times heavier than they could transport.

I refer to the Megalithomania video by Hugh Newman; Stonehenge: The Bluestone Enigma - Exploring the Megalithic Quarry in Wales. [www.youtube.com]

In this presentation Hugh Newman noted that some of the stone from Stonehenge came from the bluestone quarries at Craig Rhos-Y-Felin in West Wales. Newman said the ancient quarries are often sacred sites and seen as the birth place of the temple.

I think Hugh Newman is correct. The only thing I would add is that the quarry appears to be the germ-line of a living planet earth – the temple the soma/body. See: [grahamhancock.com]